Updated 4x: Michigan Young Republican chair & "rising star" indicted in Cleveland on rape, kidnap charges
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Update 2x: Michigan Federation of Young Republicans has appointed an acting chair. All references to Michael Flory as one of the "rising stars of GOP politics in America" have been removed on the current page, but you can still read it here in the cache.
Update 3x: From a Plain Dealer OPENERS post dated July 5, 2006:
More than two hundred young Republicans from around the country will meet in Cleveland this weekend as part of the Young Republican National Federation’s 70th anniversary gala.
The weekend-long conference, which includes a black-tie event with U.S. Sen. George Voinovich and Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell, gives the largely Democratic town a perfect opportunity to practice its manners. National party leaders will visit Cleveland next month to explore whether the city could handle the far more lucrative 2008 national convention.
“We are hoping to send young Republicans back home talking about Cleveland,” Brandon Davis said.
Davis, one of the event's organizers, said he hopes to put a good show because national party co-chair and site-selection member, Jo Ann Davidson, will be in town.
Update 4x: The PD has two corrections to its story from last week. First, that "Flory was vice chairman of an ancillary national Young Republicans organization known as the State Chairs Association" and not vice chair of the National Federation of Young Republicans. Second, "Flory's role as a "parent-child, student-teacher" mentor referred to his relationship with the Michigan Young Republicans chapter as a whole, not the defendant specifically,..."
Based on my Sitemeter stats, people are searching on Flory about as much as on "Anna Nicole Smith jokes" and Top 100 Work-out Songs - I can't believe how many people are looking for work-out music. Maybe people are mashing or cutting up the three posts.
Original post:
From The Plain Dealer:
Michael A. Flory, 32, of Jackson, Mich., faces charges of rape, kidnapping, aggravated burglary, gross sexual imposition and witness intimidation.
Police and prosecutors say he escorted a drunken 21-year-old colleague to her hotel room after an evening of partying in the Warehouse District. He attacked her when she was feeling sick and on the verge of passing out, she told police.
...
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Carol Skutnik described Flory as a mentor to the woman, who is 11 years his junior, and said their relationship was "almost a parent-child, student-teacher thing."
The intimidation counts accuse Flory of harassing the alleged victim, Skutnik said. "There were efforts made to contact her, to cut her off at the pass to avoid going through with prosecution," Skutnik said.
Is silence golden, or something else?
Update: Make that 12 counts of rape.
Update 3x: From a Plain Dealer OPENERS post dated July 5, 2006:
More than two hundred young Republicans from around the country will meet in Cleveland this weekend as part of the Young Republican National Federation’s 70th anniversary gala.
The weekend-long conference, which includes a black-tie event with U.S. Sen. George Voinovich and Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell, gives the largely Democratic town a perfect opportunity to practice its manners. National party leaders will visit Cleveland next month to explore whether the city could handle the far more lucrative 2008 national convention.
“We are hoping to send young Republicans back home talking about Cleveland,” Brandon Davis said.
Davis, one of the event's organizers, said he hopes to put a good show because national party co-chair and site-selection member, Jo Ann Davidson, will be in town.
Update 4x: The PD has two corrections to its story from last week. First, that "Flory was vice chairman of an ancillary national Young Republicans organization known as the State Chairs Association" and not vice chair of the National Federation of Young Republicans. Second, "Flory's role as a "parent-child, student-teacher" mentor referred to his relationship with the Michigan Young Republicans chapter as a whole, not the defendant specifically,..."
Based on my Sitemeter stats, people are searching on Flory about as much as on "Anna Nicole Smith jokes" and Top 100 Work-out Songs - I can't believe how many people are looking for work-out music. Maybe people are mashing or cutting up the three posts.
Original post:
From The Plain Dealer:
Michael A. Flory, 32, of Jackson, Mich., faces charges of rape, kidnapping, aggravated burglary, gross sexual imposition and witness intimidation.
Police and prosecutors say he escorted a drunken 21-year-old colleague to her hotel room after an evening of partying in the Warehouse District. He attacked her when she was feeling sick and on the verge of passing out, she told police.
...
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Carol Skutnik described Flory as a mentor to the woman, who is 11 years his junior, and said their relationship was "almost a parent-child, student-teacher thing."
The intimidation counts accuse Flory of harassing the alleged victim, Skutnik said. "There were efforts made to contact her, to cut her off at the pass to avoid going through with prosecution," Skutnik said.
Is silence golden, or something else?
Update: Make that 12 counts of rape.
JBlog Me
12 Comments:
Jill,
I know from exprerience that local central committee members and/or chairs often do not interact with each other, let alone with someone at the state level, and in another state no less! I doubt if the local folks had any idea of what happened - and if they did - I think their best option is to let the legal system work it out. (of course, if they have direct knowlege of the incident, they need to go to the police!) What if they did get involved? They would either make it worse for accused or if they tried to intervene on his behalf, could be accused of covering up.
The most that I would think should happen, is once there is some movement in the case - an indictment, dropped charges, whatever, is for the chair to issue a statement of support for the legal system and for the woman to find resolution. Anything else would inflame an already bad situation for both sides. IMHO
mbt-
You're missing the point here. As Jill wrote, "But I feel strongly that there's been so much moral turpitude in Ohio, with Republicans that this alleged act simply can't be separated from EVERYTHING and stay on its own. People can say and fight and argue for that all they want, I don't see it that way." I.e., it's not so much that the incident occurred, but rather because it's a Republican who is accused of the crime, it's the perfect way to attack Republicans in general.
ANON - Actually, no - that's not my point at all, well, not exactly or primarily.
First - MBT -
I agree 100% with your approach. He's been indicted and we'll see. What you say about issuing a statement of support for the legal system and resolution is exactly on target. I agree. You are right on that count.
As for Anon and the issue of attacking Republicans in general, that's not my game here and anyone who's read this blog for more than a few days knows that I don't do that - certainly not as routine if at all.
In this case, however, again - Ohio is a state reeling from case after case after case of Republicans being involved in criminal, felonious activity. I'm talking about perception.
But let's remove the party entirely and just look at political young guns whom everyone wants to call a rising star - from EITHER party.
They are being set-up to be immortal and superhuman - and no one is that, clearly.
But to what extent is fallibility okay? Not to the extent that it's a crime - like alleged rape.
Anon - don't know if you know me or not, because you're ANONYMOUS, but I have other personal information about other individuals which I choose not to divulge specifically because it would do nothing but inflame party divides at the expense of the private lives even politician's should be allowed to lead.
You can draw your lines wherever you want. In this instance, I'm fairly confident as to where I'm drawing the line. And it's not about attacking Republicans in general.
Jill and anon,
Being from Maryland, we're not used to the GOP being the corrupt ones - we don't have enough power for anyone to approach us to be corrupt - but I can certainly see how on top of everything else that has gone on with the Ohio GOP, it is easy to draw the conclusions of a connection.
12 counts of rape? Yikes! I do hope that the party at some point does at least acknowlege the incident ...
Unfortunately, some 'rising stars' get there by less than honorable means and have personalities that lend themselves to this type of misbehavior. Tragic - I hope it is not true, for the sake of both of them.
Thanks for the input, MBT - I too hope it's not true but then this young woman has some issues that must be going on too. And again, just being the subject of the allegations will cloud Flory - if he doesn't deserve that, that's a problem. If he got away from something that couldn't be proven or was a misunderstanding of consent, that's not so great either but better than criminal behavior - though, as women, we might find it "criminal" if he treated her that way.
A lot we don't know - just don't like the whole setup.
You know with Duke, it was the same thing for me - the whole idea of what was even going on - with or without all the charges. Just shouldn't be happening period. How prurient is that of me!? I'm sure it's because of the age of my kids right now. :)
I have to leave this at anonymous due to a Non-Disclosure Agreement signed by myself and Mr. Michael Flory but he almost did the same to me when I worked for him. I pray that this poor girl receives the justice she deserves and that Michael Flory loses it all.
Other than being able to tell where your comment originates, I can't verify this, however, I have a hard time believing someone would be hunting down blogs to leave comments smearing Mr. Flory. Unless he has a lot of reasons to be smeared.
In any case - thanks for reading and commenting. He is, of course, still innocent until proven guilty, or pleading.
A non-disclosure agreement eh?
I was actually looking to find out what happened at the Arraignment and came across your blog. And yes, Mr. Flory has ALOT of reasons to be smeared. He is a pig and for someone who works in the legal field (for a criminal defense attorney at that) with a poor excuse for a man like Flory, with him, there is no innocent until proven guilty. I am just hoping that the investigators will dig into his past and the past allegations made against him will arise, being able to bring forth what he did to me.
I also must leave an anonymous comment because of past dealings with Mr. Flory. However, as someone who has personal experience with Mr. Sleaze I hope he burns in hell for what he has done. Not only to the woman in question but to all the other young girls he has terrorized. At this point I don't believe that his political affiliation matters except that he used his position to meet and lure these young girls into his clutches. There are many of them out there and I hope they start coming forward with information. I don't know how signing a non-disclosure agreement would stand to keep someone from pressing criminal charges if a crime was committed. I hope his days of terror and intimidation are finally over.
You need to remember Michael Flory is INNOCENT until he is proven guilty. I have known him personally for over 16 years and he has always treated me with respect and the honor that any woman deserves. For those that choose to put him down and make him out to be a horriable person I cannot wait until he has proven his innocence and you all feel just bad for helping the press and everyone elese try to smear his good name and great person that he has worked so hard in his life to become. I know in my heart that he is not capable of all he is accused of doing. I love him with all my heart and always will. I know him better then he sometimes knows himself, this will all end soon and like I said you all can just feel bad for helping smear his name.
Anons all: thanks for reading and leaving comments.
Do any of you know what happened on 3/14 - whether the pre-triall went forward and what occurred there?
Thanks.
He dated my daughter age 24 for 2 yrs HE told her HE was NOT married but that Erin was only a crazy nut EX wife. He took my daugter to Las Vegas and on several other trips HE even showed up at our home to make sure that she would not come out of the wood work and talk My daughter even gets mail from him in Prison she refuses to have any contact with him his letters go in the shredder. IF ONLY I had known about this guy.
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